Racism in Fashion - Black Lives, Careers, Dreams, and Opinions Matter
Hello and welcome to the seventh week of moderated, a newsletter created to dive into insights and phenomenons in the Fashion Industry. It also has a curation and summary of the most talked last week’s events of the industry, offering further readings for more details.
if you are here for the first time, nice to meet you! I hope I can somehow help you to keep up with the fast-paced Fashion Industry. If you haven’t subscribed yet to receive a weekly issue by e-mail, you can just by clicking below.
This week’s moderated will be a little bit different. I touched on the recent tragic events that happened with George Floyd and João Pedro, and recommended two texts about the necessity and importance of the fashion industry being more active against racism.
But before we jump into the main article, check the last week’s recap of the Fashion Industry.
Last Week’s Recap
To Deal With Inventory Excess, Harrods Will Have a Pop-Up Outlet Store
Harrods is known for catering luxury products to a wealthy set of customers. Even with immense success, the department store avoided expanding its retail footprint to keep the exclusivity of its iconic Knightsbridge flagship. The only exceptions are a few airport and train stations tourist shops that sell Harrods branded merchandise. However, due to the lockdown measures that made Harrods close its doors for around three months, the retailer pilled an unprecedented volume of inventory, and to sell it, it had to get more flexible.
Thus, Harrods decided to open a pop-up store in London’s Westfield White City outlet mall, where they will offer the unsold product at discounted prices. The decision comes as a way to not only keep the store’s brand equity, but also to avoid agglomerations at their flagship. As Harrods’ Managing Director Michael Ward stated to BOF, “We couldn't really have a sale in the store… That isn’t socially responsible for us to do”. He noted that the store usually receives tens of thousands of shoppers during sale seasons. Harrods’ outlet store will open in July and it’s being designed for social distancing. For now, the outlet is temporary, but Ward shared that this can change depending on the scenario around Christmas.
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Luxury Fashion Is Linked to Illegal Wildlife Trade
Between 2003 and 2013, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) confiscated over 5,600 fashion products from brands such as Ralph Lauren, Gucci, and Michael Kors for being made from illegal wildlife. This information was disclosed in a study made by two researchers at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. According to the study, just around 10% of products made from illegal wildlife were found and seized, which means more thousands of products arrived at retailers. After 2013, the USFWS stopped disclosing the names of wildlife importers, but, according to the study, “The fashion industry remains the largest importer of illegal wildlife to the USA and has the potential to impact the status of wild populations”. The study does not imply that fashion brands were intentionally smuggling these goods. Recently, brands such as Chanel, Victoria Beckham, and the retailer Selfridges banned exotic skins from their stores due to the difficulties to obtain them from ethical sources.
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Zalando Announces It Will Only Sell Sustainable Brands From 2023
Zalando, the largest online-only fashion retailer in Europe, announced that, from 2023, sustainability will be a demand for brands to be featured at their platform. All the 2,000 brands that sell through Zalando will have to provide their supply chain information. If they do not meet the standards or are not open to improving, these brands will no longer be part of Zalando's platform. The brands have three years to make the adjustments to measure up to these new requirements. They will also be ranked by Higg Brand and Retail Module, a tool created by the Sustainable Apparel Coalition that provides brands a performance measure of their environmental and social impact.
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Hanifa’s 3D Fashion Show Is the Innovation On the Runway We Were Waiting For
On May 22nd, the Congolese designer Anifa Mvuemba, the founder of Hanifa, presented her latest collection Pink Label Congo with 3D renderings on Instagram Live. Her groundbreaking presentation was a first glimpse of how much the fashion industry can still innovate in the runway, something they do need to do since all next fashion weeks will be online. She shared that she learned the necessary to create the show through Google and Youtube, as pointed:
“There's so much information out there. I Google everything. (...) I'm just the type of person that when I want to learn how to do something, I'm going to learn it even if that means I have to be up 24 hours for a week straight,”.
The successful and acclaimed show had its challenges, especially due to Instagram's technical problems. But still, Anifa made her mark in fashion and open the path to innovative online runway shows. To check more about Hanifa’s show and the designer Anifa Mvuemba (I swear it’s worth it, she is an impressive lady), check this article from Elle or her brand’s Instagram.
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George Floyd’s Death Starts Reactions Against and From Fashion Brands
Makayla London post calling out Fashion Nova (top-right); looted Gucci store’s picture taken by Jennifer Hoffner and posted at Diet Prada (top-right); Nike’s video about racism (bottom-left), and Glossier statement of financial support to the race injustice cause (bottom-left).
The image of a Gucci store with a graffiti written ‘eat the rich’ is probably the materialization of how luxury fashion has been behaving in front of increasing inequality. The picture, taken in Los Angeles, demonstrates quite well the whole discussion around ostentatious luxury, the constant increase of prices from luxury brands and how much they are more and more becoming a representation of inequality. The protests were an answer to the murder of George Floyd by a policeman in the US. Other luxury brands such as Alexander McQueen, Marc Jacobs, and the department store Nordstrom were also affected.
Many influencers and customers also demanded the positioning of fashion brands around the tragic murder. Some brands such as Nike released statements in a very responsive way, while others positioned themselves after the public demanded the fashion industry to break its silence. Many influencers called out Fashion Nova and Pretty Little Thing for not positioning themselves initially, especially because these brands already carry some controversies related to racism. Louis Vuitton also received backlash for releasing a bag launch online campaign with many influencers amid the protests.
Nike was one of the first fashion brands to speak up, posting a video on social media suggesting that, when it comes to racism, we don’t do it, playing with their strong slogan ‘just do it’. Adidas and other Nike’s competitors reshared the brand’s video, uniting for the message. Brands such as Glossier, God Is Dope, Fila, and many others have donated to organisations fighting racial injustice. Glossier, in addition, has donated US$500,000 in grants to black-owned beauty businesses.
Racism in Fashion - Black Lives, Careers, Dreams, and Opinions Matter
First of all, you can help the Black Lives Matter movement by clicking here or the Brazilian movement Alvos do Genocídio by clicking here.
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I had written a full article about fashion and technology, which I finished last Friday. But, with the proportions that George Floyd murder took, it would be too tone-deaf to release that. I come from a country where racism is also a major problem, and where we also recently lost the life of a black person, a 14-year-old kid called João Pedro, killed by a lost bullet during a police intervention in a Brazilian community. João was at his uncle’s home, playing with his cousins when he got shot on the back by a bullet coming from the police. And the sad thing is that João Pedro and George Floyd are just the ones that get to the news, but this is a current thing that happens every day. So, I couldn’t just ignore the movement rising around the globe, because as Angela Davis once quoted: “In a racist society it is not enough to be non-racist, we must be anti-racist.”
The initial silence from most fashion brands to the George Floyd alarming video and injustice made many people question how much is fashion actually doing against racism. Racism is not a recent topic in the fashion industry. The industry has been profiting from black culture for a long time, while the majority of professionals behind fashion brands are still white. Abloh and Olivier Rousteing are the only black creative directors of a major luxury brand and Jide Zeitlin, from Tapestry, is one of the few black CEOs in the fashion industry. In recent years, many fashion brands made more effort toward inclusivity in advertising. Even though that was very often a marketing approach to the younger generation, it was still a good improvement that the industry went through. But that is not enough. We need diversity in every area of the fashion industry, obviously including high positions. As much as many brands supported the black lives movement on social media by now, they need to do more than that.
To better demonstrate these thoughts, I decided to bring two texts from big names in the industry. They talked about their experience with racism in fashion. I definitely recommend these readings.
The first article is from 2018, but it is still relevant to this day: ‘Everywhere and Nowhere: What it’s really like to be black and work in fashion’. Written by Lindsay Peoples Wagner, current Editor In Chief at Teen Vogue, to The Cut; the article also counts with testimonials from many successful black people in the fashion industry.
The second text was written by Edward Enninful, the Editor-Chief of British Vogue, and published this Monday under the title: Racism Is A Global Issue”: Edward Enninful On The Importance Of Cultivating An Anti-Racist Agenda. The text discusses the tragic murder of George Floyd and brings the responsibility of the fashion industry to be more active against racism, as he stated: “We need black people ingrained within the infrastructure of the fashion industry, not just on the other side of the camera or appearing on an Instagram feed. People need a seat at the table.”
And with these extremely necessary and insightful texts, I leave you to reflect on how much we can all do to revert this alarming scenario of racism. Fashion is a reflection of society and if black people are going through racism every day, fashion needs to admit it is part of the problem too and advocate for change.
Black Lives Matter.
Thank you for reading this week’s moderated and next Tuesday I will be back with more.
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